In recent times, Kim Jong Eun has launched a long-range missile and conducted a third nuclear test, all in the process of laboring to solidify his power. He also scrapped the Korean War armistice and provoked a heightened diplomatic crisis, and in May drove the closure of the Kaesong Industrial Complex. However, there was a silver lining to all this: as Kim’s provocative moves became increasingly severe, South Korean university students grew more eager to accurately understand the nature of the system.
[imText1]As a result, new university clubs and research groups have been cropping up in ones and twos, all keen to learn more about North Korea. These groups, which are aware of the need to solve issues of human rights or the “North Korean nuclear problem,” things that will surely have a huge impact on the future of the Korean Peninsula, are trying to see the big North Korean picture rather than making do with rudimentary knowledge.
Daily NK reports on all these North Korea-related organizations at the student level, including one organization that mimics North Korea’s infamous slush fund-generating rooms 38 and 39, Korea University’s “Room 35”, and this one, Dongguk University’s “Academic Alliance.” Formed last year within Dongguk University, Academic Alliance holds weekly symposiums on topics like the history of the North Korean nuclear crisis and North Korean policy under South Korea’s different presidents. Daily NK recently met Park Young Min (pictured), the head of the group, to talk about its future plans and activities.
